Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Forced-Union States Lose 1.63 Million Tax Filers and $124.3 Billion in Income from 2001 to 2008

National Right to Work Committee -- Data for the Tax Filing Year 2008 show that a total of 1.523 million personal income tax filers were residing that year in a Right to Work state after residing somewhere else in the U.S. the previous year. Meanwhile, a total of 1.338 million tax filers were residing in a Right to Work state in 2007, but filed from somewhere else in the U.S. in 2008. That means a net total of 185,000 tax filers moved from a forced-unionism state to a Right to Work state between 2007 and 2008 (see top chart above).

The SIS also calculates and makes available to the public the aggregate adjusted gross incomes for households in the year immediately following their move. Personal income tax filers moving to a Right to Work state between 2007 and 2008 reported a total of $76.432 billion in income in 2008, or roughly $50,190 per filer. Tax filers moving out of a Right to Work state during the same period reported a total of $61.773 billion in income in 2008, or roughly $46,165 per filer.

Both because of their substantial taxpayer losses due to net domestic outmigration, and because the taxpayers they gained earned significantly less per capita than did the taxpayers they lost, forced-dues states lost a total of $14.659 billion in adjusted gross income in a single year (see bottom chart above).

Over the last eight years for which data are available (Tax Filing Years 2001 through 2008), a net total of more than 1.63 million tax filers moved from a forced-unionism state to a Right to Work state. The annual net outflow ranged from 125,000 in the Tax Filing Year 2001 to 270,000 in the Tax Filing Year 2005.

Moreover, in all eight years, the average income of a tax filer moving to a Right to Work state was at least $3,000 higher (in 2008 dollars) than the average income for a tax filer leaving a Right to Work state. Counting just the income lost by forced-unionism states in the first year after each tax filer moved to a Right to Work state, forced-unionism states lost a net total of $124.3 billion (in constant 2008 dollars) due to domestic outmigration over this eight-year period.

Awe, that's nothing. I can't wait to see the flows of people from higher and increasing tax states to no and low tax states in the next few years. Upstate NY is already a barren wasteland. Connecticut can't be far behind.

Bill, unfortunately that's what does happen. Voting should be more difficult, and a basic civics test should be required. Democrats would thwart that all day long like they kibosh requiring even basic ID at the polls.

What this article misses is that we are all part of a "forced-unionized state". Witness the transfer of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to the UAW under the guise of saving the auto industry. The Obama administration even went so far as to ignore laws respecting senior secured creditors in his efforts to shower favors on his union masters. I guess it's not just kings he bows to. Or, consider the teachers unions who have managed to secure a monopoly on our children's "education". Or the absurd public employee contracts and pension obligations that threaten the solvency of numerous states. These people have set themselves up as against the people of the United States, they are a threat to our nations future.